The Establishment Initial Sketches - Penguin Books - Competition Brief

After conducting further research into 'The Establishment', I began sketching my initial concepts. These included:

1.  The first concept was to illustrate a ballot paper offering 'The Establishment' as the only option. This is to indicate how many of the political parties have one agenda and how they are presented as the only option to voters, as Owen Jones outlines in his book. This could be presented in a number of ways: the entire cover could be the ballot paper, the ballot paper could be resting on the cover with a pencil on string or the ballot paper could actually be going in the ballot box. I think the central design will probably work best, with the addition of the pencil the composition has a little more context and gives it familiarity. The ballot box shape could even be placed on the back cover.
2. My second idea was to have a £50 note designed to have some of the information altered, as if the money is going straight to 'The Establishment' rather than the bearer. Instead of 'I promise to pay the bearer on demand the sum of..' it would be 'I promise to pay The Establishment' on demand the sum of..' I also considered that instead of the 'Bank of England' typographic design, it could read 'Owen Jones' instead. This felt too complex to replicate in a professional yet still interesting way.
   
3. Another idea was to have a 'big business' owner and a politician to be in cahoots with each other. Illustrated in a quirky and dramatised way - so that the eyes are resting on the viewer but the deal is still be conducted. Another idea for this was to have the politicians face on screens behind the deal being conducted, so it shows that perhaps the deal is giving them airtime - as Owen Jones writes about their relationship with the media. This illustrative approach however might be too similar to the previous cover design.
4. The next design illustrates the 'revolving door' which Owen Jones describes as existing between politicians and big business. Again this felt too complex to accurately communicate to the audience. It would be difficult to find an effective way of representing 'big business'. 
5. Another thing Jones talks about is the 'media machine' which appears to churn out headlines for politicians. This is something which could be made physically and then photographed. Although this would mean that the cover is not cohesive with the vector illustration I designed for Norwegian Wood.
6. The final two sketches are to convey the idea of a 'financial pyramid'. The high officials are seen to be seated at the top amongst the clouds, whist the majority of the other people walk around unaware or are attempting to climb the pyramid but just can't climb past the bottom. Could be interesting to experiment as a simple illustration.